Returning the Favor and other Slices of Life

Saturday, March 17, 2007

So since I've posted regularly I've been to SETC, gotten sick, gotten well, finished up designs for The Crucible and Les Miserables (that's a lot of fuss over a loaf of bread), and gotten back into rehearsals for Taming of the Shrew. What's missing from that? Any poker. The home game will return next week, and hopefully I'll figure out some way to get something together for TripJax's time in town, but there's not gonna be a ton of pokery content here for a while.

So here's my question to you, my few remaining readers - Do you care? I've been limiting my theatre stuff to my other blog and trying to keep this place focused on poker, but does anybody really read this for accounts of my mediocre poker play? Or do you read here to keep up with your buddy Falstaff and to occassionally get a good story out of it? I think I'm going to bring my theatre stuff back over here (it is called pokerSTAGE, after all) and keep that other place for just some random scribblings that fits neither poker nor theatre. Lemme know if anyone thinks that's a terrible idea, and I'll probably do it anyway. But I'll at least think it over.

So tonight I'm about as sore as if I'd actually been exercising all week in efforts to lose weight for this role. I have lost about 7 pounds since we've started up, but a lot of that was due to being sick and not eating for several days. But this afternoon's rehearsal was a workout. If you're looking for a good cardio workout, let me suggest Taming of the Shrew, Act II, Scene 1, with a Kate who is seven years your junior and in great physical shape. She worked me like a fucking plow mule today, and I'm feeling it tonight.

For the uninitiated, that's the first meeting between Kate & Petruchio, and we go from suave wooing to a knock-down drag-out fight pretty quickly, and that's what we worked on this afternoon. There was tripping, groin kicks, face slaps, elbows to the gut, spanking and a LOT of rolling around on the floor.

Yeah, the woman playing Kate is absolutely smokin' hot, so it's a tough life I lead. No, I will not trade lives with you guys for the duration of the play.

But visceral and visual pleasure aside, we worked our ever-loving asses off on that fight this afternoon, and while fun and rewarding (artistically, you perverts) it's tough on an old fat man. But we've got what I think is a great core group of people in the show and once we all (especially me) learn our lines we'll get some great stuff done.

It's a lot of fuckin' words. I'm a little freaked out by the sheer number of words.

Cool thing happened on the design front yesterday. Crucible opened Thursday night, and as I was walking through the front office on Friday I noticed my buddy Eric, who's one of the better designers in town, sitting chatting with Esthere about an order. I said hi, and he made it a point to tell me how much he liked the lighting for Crucible. He'd gone to see it Thursday, since the director is a friend of his, and he commented on how much he liked my use of color and patterns, and really thought it was a well-lit show. That was really nice, to be recognized for doing a good job by someone whose opinion I really respect in the field. I was pretty happy with the way that show looked, so it's nice to have that opinion validated.

6 comments:

Poker is why I first came & primarily why I come back, but I enjoy reading about yr adventures on stage as well. I say write about what you want over here -- perhaps update us once in awhile on those NC/SC underground games, but don't feel obligated.

I read your blog because I'm your friend and "most" of the time find it very entertaining. As a poker & theatre friend I enjoy reading about both subjects. Reading about theatre is my favorite.I'm having D T's and cannot wait to play some poker next week.